Saturday, February 07, 2015

Sat Feb 7th Todays News

On Bolt Report an ongoing policy is that any Islam post can only be on the pinned leader. Normal rules apply in that if it is merely foul and abusive it will be deleted. Otherwise comments are welcome. ===Wishing Alex Melusky well in his campaign to take McCain's seat in congress for Arizona. Alex is a long time campaigner for a flat tax to replace other taxes which are unfair. Australia needs someone of his initiative too. McCain's service is exemplary, but it is time for change and Alex offers what is needed, if he can get the funds to make the campaign. There are rules as to who can contribute to Alex's campaign and The Conservative Voice would be happy to pass on essential details to any US citizen wishing to help. Smoke and mirrors surrounds the Liberal Party Leadership as the press fight to keep their narrative which is divorced from reality. Staggering is the recent creation of a political position within the conservative movement, the 'Moderate.' The Moderate is not a conservative. They are centrist and wet, whereas a conservative is hardline and dry. Inside the Moderate fantasy, the conservative will unreasonably try to make rational economic decisions even if they are at odds with social needs. The Moderate is a kind of swing voter, who will embrace what is 'best for all.' The problem with the Moderate fantasy is that it is divorced, totally separate from reality. It doesn't provide for rational decision making, but excuses bad policy under the understanding that the Moderate leader meant well. It is literally promising but not doing of the type that scarred many Australian governments under the ALP. No policy which is unaffordable can survive because it will be gone once the nation is broke. Conservatives of the economic variety actually are providing generously for those they administer, if given the chance. As an example, under Howard, Australia paid people to be parents and own houses while still providing a surplus and future fund. Rudd labelled it reckless spending and so ALP took government and now there is no baby bonus and fewer housing incentives and substantial, crippling debt. Any spending program that might have been supported is gone. And now cuts must be made or it will be harder in the future, with other spending programs that are made unaffordable by debt having to be cut. The myth of the Moderate may be seductive, but it is dangerous and stupid. Malcolm Turnbull is an effective Minister with drive and energy. But he is also not a PM and has nothing to offer the position. Malcolm does not offer a clear vision, but a banker's choice of policy where even a carbon tax can be embraced as one more tax. But a carbon tax is an impost on industry and limits growth and opportunity. A carbon tax is not a good impost on an economy, although it could raise tax funds. The kind of decision making is a warning for the kind of PM Malcolm could be. He betrays the trust constituents place on him and does what he feels is pragmatic. Mr Abbott, on the other hand, is complex and with scruples that inform his leadership. Mr Abbott correctly belied the cat on a carbon tax because his nuanced ideology allowed him to see it offered nothing worthwhile. As I wrote to Malcolm while he was leader of the Liberal Party, it is ok to have scruples, conservatives do, and so long as one follows their vision a conservative leader will prosper. By embracing the carbon tax, Malcolm showed he had no vision. He claimed he believed in anthropogenic global warming .. a dangerous belief no rational person can hold. Recently, Mr Turnbull has copied Mr Abbott's expressions of listening more and being more consultative. The truth is he has undermined the leadership for years and it has cost a number of elections as a result. It is to be expected that a conservative Minister is ambitious. But Malcolm is old, past his date as a party leader, and not a natural conservative, fitting more into the role of Moderate. That is why, if there is a spill on Tuesday, I will advocate that Mr Abbott be PM, and Scott Morrison should be Deputy. Julie Bishop is an outstanding talent and has much to offer the leadership team of the Liberal Party. But she has failed abysmally in any mentoring role of her fellow WA colleagues. Any prospective leader of the Liberal Party must be able to influence their colleagues and work to improve and focus their drive. Instead, Bishop has been embarrassed by her dopy colleagues making outrageously stupid and obstructive comments on a host of issues, so that they threaten to bring the party into disrepute, making it harder to elect. It isn't hard to sell the conservative brand .. they will make you richer. They will give you more than you know and keep it sustainable. But those yokels have delved into tribal 'us vs them' arguments which the ALP employ. And to use an ALP expression, we aren't them. In 1301, on this day, Edward of Caernarvon became the first Prince of Wales. Later he became Edward II. Just like the longest serving Prince of Wales, Edward was of dubious integrity. In 1497, the 'bonfire of the vanities' occurred in Florence, inspiring book burners to this day. The Action of 7th February 1813 saw a French and a Great British ship squared off for a draw after four hours of fighting. Both ships returned to port to claim victory. Neither ship had had an advantage. In 1856, Tasmania's colonial government passed the second ever legislation providing for a secret ballot. In 1898, Writer Émile Zola was charged with libel for his article J'Accuse which correctly belled the injustice of falsely accusing a Jew of treason and covering it up. In 1935, Monopoly was made a board game. In 1940, Pinocchio, the second full feature length animation was completed by Disney. In 1962, JFK bought his last Cuban cigar. In 1964, Beatles arrived in the US for the first time. In 1979, for the first time since either had been discovered, Pluto went inside Neptune's orbit. In 1990, the Central Committee agreed to give up its' monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. 1995, Ramzi Youssef, who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing was arrested in Pakistan. 2009, an inept ALP Victorian government killed 173 from mishandling forest with forest fires. They were returned to government in late 2014.

2014

Some years ago Al Gore put out an example of Pascal's Wager to prevent a Hobson's Choice of embracing AGW hysteria or death for all. The idea was to list options, embrace hysteria or not, matched with the binary possibility of it being real or not. According to Gore, the outcomes were: to address a global warming that was happening; to address a global warming that wasn't happening; to lose everything by failing to address global warming; or, to gain little by business as normal. His rhetoric suggested that Pascal would say that it was wisdom to spend big addressing global warming. But, it was rhetoric, and the actual choices were as follows: Impoverish the poorest and restrict industry from being able to address Global warming in the future; Impoverish the poorest and restrict the ability of industry to grow for no reason; Enable business to change and adapt to a future that is challenging; Enable business to change and adapt to a future that isn't challenging. In the cold hard light of reality, the choice is obvious. If you really believe that Global Warming is a reality, you need to strengthen industry and allow poor people to be able to lift themselves out of poverty and assert what is in their best interests. If Gore's fears are real, then it is important the world find anyone who, like Gore, has stolen trillions of dollars from the poorest people in the world and make them face justice at the Hague, charged with crimes against humanity. I suggest a guillotine as being compassionate justice for the hundred worst offenders. Bill Shorten was instrumental in changing SPC worker's conditions forever .. according to him. It may well be the most honest thing he has said in public life if, as is possible, SPC closes forever. A monster has married a 12 year old girl in a religious ceremony in NSW. No word as to which religion was involved, but a Lebanese male university student who had married and had a sexual relationship with a 13 year old girl was formally refused bail in Sydney on Friday. It is alleged he had befriended the 12 year old girl at a mosque in the Hunter region. Another boat has been turned back, and no apology from those who said that that could not happen.

===For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - edLorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.

Tim Blair – Saturday,February 07,2015 (5:23am)

Barack Obama offers a rare admission that a certain religion may have something to do with certain recent events:

We have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact, are betraying it.

That was lame enough, but Obama continued:

Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

He forgot about the British in Malaya in the 1950s. For the love of Jeebus, even Bill Maher had that pathetic appeal-to-ancient-times defence covered two years ago. To paraphrase: “We’re not in history. We’re in now.”

The lack of passion - the bloodlessness - of Obama’s reaction to atrocity is always striking. He can’t even be bothered pretending that he means it …

Droning on about the Crusades and Jim Crow, Obama offers the foreign policy of Oscar Wilde’s cynic: He knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. And so, as the world burns, he, uh, redoubles his, uh, vigilance, uh uh uh… Whatever.

Tim Blair – Saturday,February 07,2015 (4:34am)

Formula One audiences were down in 2014, and by the end of the season so were grids. Two teams pulled out late in the year due to bankruptcy. They are unlikely to return. In 2015, it looks as though Formula One fields will feature just 18 cars. Compare that grim state of affairs to the happy situation for another international racing series:

The World Endurance Championship has expanded beyond its stated grid maximum to 35 cars for 2015.

The WEC, which attracted an initial entry of 31 cars last year, had planned to limit its grid to 32 full-season cars, but Gerard Neveu said that the quality of entries received made it impossible to stick to that limit.

One possible reason for the WEC’s growing popularity: while F1 is effectively a control series, with entrants restricted by extremely narrow design rules, including uniformly dull engine dimensions and formats, the WEC allows extensive technical freedoms. As a result, the WEC’s peak class features Toyotas primarily powered by 3.7 litre non-turbo petrol V8s, Audis using four-litre V6 turbo diesels, Porsches propelled by four-cylinder petrol turbos – and, in 2015, Nissans running three-litre turbo V6s. Located in the front of the car. Driving the front wheels.

F1 has not seen, or been allowed, that sort of adventurous design since Tyrrell rocked up at the start of the 1976 season withthis. Good luck to Nissan and their freaky front-wheel-drive frontster. It’s a Novi for the new age.

For years, Brian Williams had been telling a
story that wasn’t true. On Wednesday night, he took to his anchor
chair on “NBC Nightly News” to apologize for misleading the public.
On Thursday, his real problems started.
A host of military veterans and pundits came forward on television and
social media, challenging Mr. Williams’s assertion that he had simply
made a mistake when he spoke, on several occasions, about having been in
a United States military helicopter forced down by enemy fire in Iraq
in 2003…

The account that Mr. Williams told of the episode evolved over the
years, with his personal involvement gradually growing more perilous. In
a 2003 segment on NBC that described it as “a close call in the skies
over Iraq,” Mr. Williams said, “the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown
out of the sky.”
In 2013, Mr. Williams told David Letterman that he had actually been on
the helicopter that got shot down, adding that a crew member had been
injured and received a medal…
And on the “Nightly News” last week, he described “a terrible moment a
dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were
traveling in was forced down after being hit by an R.P.G.,” a reference
to a rocket-propelled grenade.
Mr. Summerlin [who was on the helicopter that was forced down] said that
Mr. Williams’s helicopter was part of a different mission and at least
30 minutes behind theirs. His account is supported by two of the pilots
of Mr. Williams’s own helicopter, Christopher Simeone and Allan Kelly,
who said in an interview that they did not recall their convoy of
helicopters coming under fire. After the initial piece aired on NBC in
2003, Mr. Summerlin and his crew went looking for reporters on their
base in Kuwait to tell them about the inaccuracies in Mr. Williams’s
reporting. Instead, they wound up leaving notes in several news vans
encouraging them to get in touch…
It’s not unprecedented for a public figure to exaggerate his or her
experiences, especially when it comes to military conflict. In 2008,
then presidential candidate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged
that she had misspoken when she described having to run across a tarmac
to avoid sniper fire after landing in Bosnia as first lady in 1996....
But for a journalist — and in particular, an anchor — to do so has
struck many people in the news industry as a very different sort of
offense. While most were unwilling to publicly criticize a colleague,
few were persuaded by Mr. Williams’s explanation.

On Tuesday the Islamic State released a 22-minute video showing Flight
Lieutenant Muath al-Kasasbeh of the Royal Jordanian Air Force being
doused in petrol and burned to death. It is an horrific way to die, and
Flt Lt al-Kasasbeh showed uncommon bravery, standing stiff and dignified
as the flames consumed him. And then he toppled, and the ISIS cameras
rolled on, until what was left was charred and shapeless and
unrecognizable as human…
President Obama’s response was to go to the National Prayer Breakfast
and condescendingly advise us - as if it’s some dazzlingly original
observation rather than the lamest faculty-lounge relativist bromide -
to “remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people
committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ"…
... the President could barely conceal his boredom at having to discuss the immolation of Flt Lt al-Kasasbeh:

Aaand it, I think, will redouble [pause] the vigilance aaand
determination on the part of our global coalition to, uh, make sure that
they are degraded and ultimately defeated. Ummmm. [Adopting a whimsical
look] It also just indicates the degree to which whatever ideology
they’re operating off of, it’s bankrupt. [Suppressing a smirk, pivoting
to a much more important subject.] We’re here to talk about how to make
people healthier and make their lives better.

The lack of passion - the bloodlessness - of Obama’s reaction to
atrocity is always striking. He can’t even be bothered pretending that
he means it…
Obama ... declares action, and then does nothing. His war against ISIS
was supposed to be one in which the US would not put “boots on the
ground”, but instead leave that to our allies. The allies have the
boots, but they could use some weapons, too. Obama has failed to supply
the Kurds or anybody else with what they need to defeat our enemies.
It’s becoming what they call a pattern of behavior. Elliott Abrams draws
attention to this passage in a New York Times story about Ukraine:

The Russians have sent modern T-80 tanks, whose armor
cannot be penetrated by Ukraine’s aging and largely inoperative
antitank weapons, along with Grad rockets and other heavy weapons.
Russian forces have also used electronic jamming equipment to interfere
with the Ukrainians’ communications….
Ukraine has requested arms and equipment, including ammunition,
sniper rifles, mortars, grenade launchers, antitank missiles, armored
personnel carriers, mobile field hospitals, counterbattery radars and
reconnaissance drones.

Hmm. So how much of that shopping list have we responded to? Obama won’t
write Ukraine a blank check, but he will write them a blanket check:

The $16.4 million in aid that Mr. Kerry will
announce in Kiev is intended to help people trapped by the fighting in
Donetsk and Luhansk. The aid will be used to buy basic items like
blankets and clothing, along with counseling for traumatized civilians.

...With at least another two years of civilizational retreat to go,
we’re gonna need a lot more security blankets, which is good news for
whichever Chinese factory makes them.

The West is in retreat, no longer sure if there’s anything worth defending to the death.
(Thanks to reader Kiwi.)

[The Abbott Government] needs this because
that is precisely the charge against it. Not that it’s made tough
decisions, but that it has made discriminatory and cruel ones.
That its philosophy of pain is simply that it should be visited upon
people it doesn’t like: poor people, sick people, young people. Despite all the words it has ever said in its defence, the government has never clearly answered that charge.

Seriously? Liberal and Nationals MPs hate the sick, poor and the young and try to hurt them?
UPDATE
I originally quoted only the sentence in bold. On reading the full
context - now included - I see he puts the plainly ludicrous allegation
in the minds of unspecified others. Aly still does not disavow it, but
my initial reaction was stronger than it should have been, given this.
An apology to Waleed.
(Thanks to reader Chistery.)

It’s pretty obvious which Liberal is briefing against the leader.
Laurie Oakes:

Rudd alienated many colleagues through incidents of angry, foul-mouthed
treatment of others. Abbott, it turns out, can be prone to similar
behaviour.
There was an example on Budget night last year involving Danielle Blain,
a West Australian Liberal and federal vice-president who intended to
run for the party presidency.
Abbott, backing former Howard Government Minister Richard Alston for the
job, called Blain to his office in Parliament House and demanded that
she withdraw from the contest. Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, a friend
of Blain’s, also attended the meeting.
When Blain expressed reluctance to pull out, Abbott became furious,
shouting that it was his right to make the decision. Expletives,
including the “F” bomb, were undeleted. The Prime Minister then stormed
out of his own office.
Yet another “Captain’s pick” that caused problems.
Blain eventually did give way, but — the daughter of an Anglican
clergyman — she was understandably stunned at such treatment. Bishop is
said to have been decidedly unimpressed.

If this was meant to shock Liberals into supporting Turnbull, here’s a reminder that the teller of the tale is only selectively shocked:

According to one story [about Turnbull as Opposition Leader], when a
Shadow Cabinet minister dropped into Turnbull’s office to inquire if
he’d like some help with a particular policy, he got a short reply:
“F--- off. If I want your help, I’ll ask for it.”
Turnbull supporters sing in unison that the MP has changed. He will be
more consultative, more inclusive, and is better able to argue the case
for major economic reform, they insist.

More briefing against Abbott, this time of Peter Hartcher, and presumably from the same source.
Notable is that the Turnbull/Bishop side is briefing journalists of the Left.

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott on Friday derailed the campaign to replace him with Malcolm Turnbull — for now.
He got deputy Julie Bishop to help defeat a spill motion called by backbenchers to put both their jobs to a vote on Tuesday.
Bishop has been widely tipped to run on a joint ticket with Turnbull to
replace Abbott, but appears to have judged it too dangerous to seem
another Julia Gillard by actively knocking off a newish prime minister.
But her agreement to defeat the spill was heavily qualified: she would
do so only because of “cabinet solidarity and my position as deputy
leader”. Note: not to support Abbott at all.
Nor are her backers bound by her pledge.
Still, Abbott may now have a few more weeks yet. With Bishop’s grudging support, he is more likely to defeat the spill motion.
But have the plotters undermining him and the Government given a moment’s thought to whether Turnbull would be any better?
Not to judge by the email that backbencher Luke Simpkins on Friday sent
colleagues to explain why he was moving the spill motion.
(Read full article here.)

THE torrent of criticism over Tony Abbott’s
decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip from conservative
commentators helped to shatter backbench confidence in his leadership
and energise a crisis within the Liberal Party that so far remains
unresolved.
Must-read conservative commentators such as Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine,
Greg Sheridan, Janet Albrechtsen, Niki Savva and Paul Sheehan launched
into Abbott and questioned, after so many other misjudgments, whether
his prime ministership was terminal and the government was cascading to
electoral defeat…
It is not the first time these columnists have criticised the Abbott
government. On Thursday, Savva declared: “Abbott’s rule is over.” Devine
trashed Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin, saying she runs the Prime
Minister’s office in a “Stalinist fashion”. And Bolt, in a now famous
blog post last November, said the government must “change or die”.
The Centre-Right’s detached criticism of the Abbott government raises
the question of why there are so few from the Centre-Left who are
prepared to offer analytical criticism of Labor under prime ministers
Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard, or now under Bill Shorten…
Pages of left-leaning Fairfax newspapers and websites such as the ABC’s
The Drum, Guardian Australia and Crikey are awash with articles savaging
the Coalition but offer few analytical pieces about Labor’s policy
record under Rudd and Gillard, its philosophical or organisational
challenges and its prospects under Shorten…
[F]ew in the press gallery offered any serious and sustained critique of Labor in power.
Some of it was plainly absurd. In May 2013, The Sydney Morning Herald’s
Mark Kenny suggested Gillard’s legacy on “social reform record might
rival (Gough) Whitlam’s and that her economic reforms rank with those of
the Hawke-Keating and Howard periods”. In February 2013, Laura Tingle
compared Gillard’s leadership with that of Abraham Lincoln’s during the
American Civil War. “Like Lincoln, Gillard grabs the nettle,” said the
headline to one of her columns.

Why don’t the Left tend to attack their own as conservatives do?

1. The Left tend to be collectivists but conservatives individualists
(albeit with many exceptions). Fear of exclusion from the tribe is
powerful.
2. The collectivist Left is the natural home of the mediocre and timid.
3. The Left may well note what happens when conservatives do attack
their own. They help destroy what they’d hoped to reform. Their advice
is often ignored, but their criticism is remembered.

UPDATE
Speaking of which, Greg Sheridan offers a bruising but accurate summary
of the failings in office of his friend, Tony Abbott, yet concludes:

Abbott is still the best bet for an unlikely Coalition recovery for three reasons.
He understands the policy challenges best and the substance of his policy has overall been in the right direction.
Second, he is a proven fighter who, if he directs his energies properly, can be tremendously effective politically.
And three, he has demon­strated throughout his career the ability to change. He is very strong on the rebound.

The consequence of the internal Liberal upheaval will be irresistible.
The politicians will try to deny it — but our system is moving
inexorably into a “death of reform” straitjacket. The 2016 election is
likely to be dominated by political advice to Liberal and Labor not to
provoke the voters. This will put Australia on a long-run trajectory of
decline and growing unhappiness…
The backdrop is ominous. New Treasury Secretary John Fraser told cabinet
this week that “economic growth cannot be relied upon to address the
fiscal challenge”. This shatters one of the fanciful dreams of both the
Liberal and Labor parties.
Treasurer Hockey ... and Fraser said any return to surplus trajectory
depended on economic growth of more than 3 per cent plus savings from
the previous budget. At present, neither is achievable…
This problem exists for whoever is prime minister, Abbott or Turnbull.
This week Abbott furiously recast his economic strategy. He said the
“centrepieces” of the 2015 budget would be a package for families and
tax cuts for small business. Decoded: it’s a good news budget… It is the
clearest possible sign that politics has triumphed over savings.
It testifies to the savage fallout from the 2014 budget, a landmark
event in our history. The Abbott-Hockey fiscal consolidation is
undermined by a popular revolt,..
Hockey knows, above all, that Labor’s anti-privatisation campaigns at
the Queensland and Victorian elections threaten his asset recycling
technique to finance new infrastructure projects and create jobs…
It is inconceivable that a Turnbull-Morrison team will not recast
economic policy and the political dynamics. But how? Because Turnbull
has not been able to declare himself a candidate he cannot canvass what
he would do.

Add to this picture Labor, the Greens and Palmer United claiming
there’s no great financial problem and campaigning furiously against
spending cuts and critical reforms to pensions and other entitlements.
Add the rise of micro-parties in the Senate whose power comes from
saying no. Add a new note of fecklessness via the Twitterverse.
Australia is in decline.

THE Liberal partyroom will vote on a leadership spill motion on Tuesday,
following a backbench revolt led by West Australian MPs Luke Simpkins
and Don Randall.

The West Australian on November 25, 2011:

A WA Liberal MP has claimed Australians are unknowingly being converted
to Islam by eating Halal meat. In a speech to Parliament yesterday,
backbencher Luke Simpkins said most Australians did not know that most
of the meat they ate came from animals killed in accordance with Muslim
law. “By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one
step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should
only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon
us without us knowing,” Mr Simpkins told Parliament.

AAP on October 21, 2010:

IT’S customary for TV crews to mark where the interviewee should stand
by placing a white card on the ground, on this occasion it was marked
with the ABC logo. “Your ABC,” commented one reporter as (Don) Randall
stomped on the card. “Not my ABC — gay BC,” he responded immediately,
before answering media questions. Mr Randall’s office said he had no
response to make at this stage. But Mr Abbott’s office did. “It was
tacky and should not have been said,” a spokesman said.

Two competing mantras echo across the partyroom. From Abbott: don’t
surrender to chaos, weakness and Labor’s disease. And from the motley
bunch of Turnbull travellers: seize this chance to save the government
and invest it with new hope.
In truth, the Liberal Party is far advanced into ruining the Abbott
prime ministership while clueless about whether a Turnbull prime
ministership could rise from the ashes.

"We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic of undeveloped people, or of a decadent generation." Calvin Coolidge

Canberra scientists fear they will soon be squashed into tiny, noisy workspaces that make it too hard for them to do their research …

The CSIRO Staff Association says the plan, which will help cut maintenance costs, will undermine staff’s work.

Its secretary, Sam Popovski, said “widespread open-plan office accommodation is unsuitable for the work role and function of many CSIRO staff and that it may lead to reduced productivity and increased workplace absenteeism”.

He said scientists, engineers and other researchers needed “isolated spaces for concentration and contemplation”.

Send ‘em all to Antarctica. One expert finds a religious solution:

Associate Professor Leena Thomas, of the University of Technology, Sydney’s school of architecture, regularly surveys people’s perceptions of their workplaces, and says staff often complain about the noisiness of open-plan offices.

However, she said intelligent design could make even a 14sqm workspace suitable for most people.

Why did the Prime Minister so grossly misrepresent SPC’s enterprise bargaining agreement, and the costs it imposes on the company?

The single example Aly gives of a claim Abbott grossly misrepresented:

The ... government emphasised things such as the EBA’s “wet allowance"… [This] allowance covers the costs of protective gear for people whose job brings them into contact with dangerous chemicals, and that SPC no longer pays it anyway, preferring instead to buy the gear for the workers itself.

What Abbott actually said:

It is very important that they complete the renegotiation of the enterprise bargaining agreement. The existing agreement contains conditions and provisions which are well in excess of the award: there are wet allowances, there are loadings, there are extensive provisions to cash out sick leave, there are extremely generous redundancy provisions well in excess of the award. This does need to be very extensively renegotiated if this restructure is to be completed ...

53.37 WET PLACE ALLOWANCE 3.37.1 An employee (other than a cleaner of machinery, equipment, vats and the like) working in any place where the employee’s clothing or footwear becomes wet shall be paid 58 cents per hour extra, such extra rate to continue for all time the employee is required to work in wet clothing or footwear.

What Aly says Abbott exaggerated:

Ask SPC why it’s struggling and you get a very clear answer that emphatically has nothing to do with industrial relations. Employees’ allowances, they’ve now informed us, cost them $116,467 last year. Next to the $25 million they’re after, that’s piddling.

[The] base rates alone range from $48,538 to $61,359… I estimate SPC labour costs are double what they should be because of direct costs as well as the cost of a wide range of productivity restrictions.... Harvest Freshcuts is a food processor. The plant at Bairnsdale is about the same distance away from Melbourne that Shepparton is… The working week is longer. Labour costs look a third lower. Conditions are much closer to or capped at award rates and wages are adjusted only by CPI.

What Aly says Abbott should have said instead:

The government had several coherent (even if contestable) reasons for its decision [to refuse SPC a $25 million handout]: SPC sits within a highly profitable company flushed with cash to invest unlike our debt-riddled government; that to give money in these circumstances would set an appalling precedent of corporate welfare, inviting profitable businesses to queue for handouts; that this government is philosophically driven by the principle that it is for businesses to stand or fall on their own. Fleetingly, the government mentioned these… There was scant justification for placing industrial relations at the centre of this story.

What Abbott actually said - “fleetingly” - in announcing the decision:

I want to congratulate the owner of SPC Ardmona, Coca-Cola Amatil, for the efforts that they have already made to restructure the business. They’ve already put many millions in to the restructure. They’ve put a new management team in place. There are new marketing strategies, both domestically and abroad… They’re also prepared to very extensively renegotiate the enterprise bargaining agreements…It is very important that they complete the renegotiation of the enterprise bargaining agreement. The existing agreement contains conditions and provisions which are well in excess of the award: there are wet allowances, there are loadings, there are extensive provisions to cash out sick leave, there are extremely generous redundancy provisions well in excess of the award. This does need to be very extensively renegotiated if this restructure is to be completed and I have to say, as SPC and Coca-Cola go about this renegotiation, they’ll certainly have the support of Government in doing so.I think it’s great that SPC Ardmona do have the support of such a strong parent business, because Coca-Cola Amatil is one of the most profitable companies in our country; it’s a $9 billion business by market capitalisation. In the last six months for which has been reported, their pre-tax profit was just a whisker under $300 million, just for six months. I think their after-tax profit was about $215 million. So, this is a very, very strong business and I think this is a business which well and truly has the resources to ensure that SPC Ardmona is in a strong position to restructure in a way which will enable this company, these jobs, to flourish into the future.This is a government which is committed to trying to maximise employment, to try to ensure that the workers of Australia have viable jobs for the future; they have well-paid jobs in viable businesses and the best way to ensure that that is the case is for business to lead the restructuring that is necessary to ensure that companies like this have a strong future.Now, as I said, Coca-Cola Amatil is a very good business; a very, very good business. Its chairman is David Gonski – David Gonski AC – one of our best known business people ... and I think, as a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Amatil, SPC Ardmona does have a very strong future… So, the restructure is underway, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done and it should be done by the business. It’s not really the Government’s job to restructure a particular business

And more of the same.
So Abbott did not err about the wet allowance, which is in the enterprise agreement and is misdescribed by Aly. Abbott did not misrepresent the effect of the “piddling” allowances, talking instead about the enterprise agreement as a whole. He did not “fleetingly” mention the real reasons for refusing the handout when bringing up the enterprise agreement.
Once again I must ask of an ABC host, why this too-eager willingness to believe the worst of the Liberal Prime Minister, against the evidence? Why this misrepresentation of the facts?

Bill Shorten’s way of fighting for working people is to make them unemployable:

IN his former life as a union leader, Bill Shorten led SPC Ardmona workers on a six-day strike during the harvest season, winning them an extra eight days “leisure time’’. Amid debate over the workers’ enterprise agreement and its role in the company’s financial woes, a 2004 press release has emerged in which the now-Opposition Leader claimed to have changed SPC working conditions “forever’’.

He said workers had “won an agreement from SPC Ardmona for a 13.5 per cent improvement in salary conditions including an extra eight days of leisure time by the third year of the agreement’’.

SPC ARDMONA has sacked 73 workers at its Goulburn Valley processing plant as the struggling company fights for survival… A spokesman for SPC Ardmona said employees were aware of the “critical and urgent need to transform our business’’ and ... had been previously advised their positions were under review as the company assessed its work practices to identify productivity improvements.

ASYLUM seekers awaiting passage to Australia have begun flooding back into Malaysia in the first independent confirmation that the federal government’s controversial boats policy has effectively closed our maritime borders. Malaysian officials revealed the Maritime Enforcement Agency has for the first time intercepted boat people returning from Indonesia to Malaysia across the Malacca Straits because they could not get to Australia… Using a combination of maritime enforcement patrols, Malaysian special forces and navy, the Malaysian government claims the traffic of people smuggling through its region to Australia was slowing at source points such as the coast of Malaysia.

Malaysian officials revealed the Maritime Enforcement Agency has for the first time intercepted boat people returning from Indonesia to Malaysia across the Malacca Straits because they could not get to Australia… The official in charge of Malaysia’s operations described it as a complete “reversal” of the people smuggling trade, claiming it was a direct result of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders. “I would definitely say so, there is a change of patterns now … a reverse movement of people,” director-general of the MMEA Admiral Mohd Amdan Kurish told The Daily Telegraph… “Recently … we intercepted 27 people, Bangladeshi, who would normally move out of the country, ­Malaysia, to go to Australia.

On with Steve Price from 8pm. Listen live here. Talkback: 131 873.
Listen to all past shows here.
Last night I wondered how Shorten could rail against the “big end of town” when he had this Charles Blackman on his wall, which I suggested would be worth $100,000.

Reader C, someone in a position to know much about art, corrects me:

I believe Bill Shorten was photographed in front of a print of the painting for these reasons;

1) The original work is oil on board – it would not be framed under glass with a mount; 2) The original work is 121.9 x 76.2 cm – much larger than the work depicted in the photograph; 3) It’s a major painting by Blackman from a very important period – it would be worth in excess of $400,000 if it came on the market; and 4) I have not found any records of smaller copies of the work by Blackman in oil or acrylic

If the far-Left considers the ABC friendly and conservatives consider it hostile, can Scott really maintain both have got it wrong?
UPDATE
Small example of many similar I could cite each day. A caller on ABC host Jon Faine’s show today attacks guest Tim Wilson, a classical liberal appearing with Labor’s Liberty Sanger, as the “cuckoo in the nest at the ABC” and demands he be replaced by someone from the Left-leaning Australia Institute. He congratulates Faine “for your evenhandedness”.

Zoe Leviston, a social psychologist at CSIRO and lead author of the survey, said the ranking was “surprisingly low”, ... [and] may reflect people turning off the issue because it had become so politicised, artificially pulling the ranking down.

The World Meteorological Organisation declared on Tuesday that 2013 was the world’s sixth-warmest on record. Last year was also Australia’s warmest in a century of records, the Bureau of Meteorology said last month. Thirteen of the 14 warmest years since instrumental records began in 1850 have occurred this century, with 2005 and 2010 the equal warmest, and 1998, a strong El Nino year, was the third warmest, the WMO said.

Which is a transparent attempt to avoid admitting this:

Not reporting but propagandising.
UPDATE
Good question from reader amf:

“Zoe Leviston, a social psychologist at CSIRO”. The ‘S’ in CSIRO used to stand for scientificWhy has the CSIRO become so debased that it is conducting surveys instead of doing the hard science it was renowned for?

IT was February 7, 2013, the blackest day in Australian sport. Or so it was said.Criminals, bikies and underworld figures had infiltrated Australia’s sporting codes, and mad scientists in long white coats and sports fitness staff with muscles as best mates, were giving out drugs like they were candy on Halloween.There were claims of match-fixing and the use of performance-enhancing drugs…Twelve months on, it’s virtually amounted to sweet FA… Since that fearmongering day in Canberra, just one sportsperson has been suspended for use and trafficking of a performance-enhancing drugs and he is Canberra Raiders winger Sandor Earl.

What a scandal. So much damage done. So much hype. Such little questioning by so many journalists, some seemingly keener to defend Labor than innocent athletes.And then there was that desperate search for scapegoats, as I noted already just two months after that farcical press conference:

It was in February that the Gillard Government made the chiefs of five big sports codes - including the AFL - stand on a stage like guilty men as ministers Jason Clare and Kate Lundy lectured us on how Australian sport was corrupted with drug cheating, match-fixing and organised crime. Really? So in the two months since, why have we seen not a single player of any code charged? Not a single drug test failed? Not a single instance of match-fixing found?Where the hell is the proof?The people behind this farce must be sweating. The search must be on for some face-saver. A scapegoat. Step up, James Hird.

This kind of open contempt not just for police but for lifeguards - and the public - seems new:

TEENS are terrorising swimmers and lifeguards at Northcote pool, endangering others by doing bombs into crowded areas and pushing people into the water. Police say troublemaking youths could face assault charges after they were called to evict large groups of kids several times in the past month… Pool managers have even resorted to employing security guards to protect patrons and lifeguards…A video posted on Facebook in January showed two boys running at two lifeguards, who had their backs turned, and pushing them into the pool… Witnesses were horrified at the actions of a gang of 20 boys last Sunday, whose “anti-social behaviour” forced police to close the outdoor pool as the mercury soared to 39C… Police were called to evict the youths but they refused to leave and threw objects at the officers, forcing the pool to be closed early at about 5pm.

The pool was closed? Because the thugs refused to leave? And the troublemakers “could” face charges - or not?
There’s another symptom for you. As the public’s authority shrinks, that of the tribes grows strong.

I can confirm Bill Shorten’s closeness to - or dependence on - unions is indeed an issue for some frontbenchers, and AWU boss Paul Howes has exposed that with his speech this week::

Mr Howes’ stinging attack on a minority of corrupt “criminals” in the construction union provoked significant debate within the Labor Party on Thursday, with senior members questioning Mr Shorten’s handling of the unfolding allegations of corruption and malfeasance ... and questioning why the ALP leader had not put more distance between himself and the troubled union. One member of the shadow ministry, who declined to be named, questioned Mr Shorten’s political strategy and suggested that given his position as leader was safe following party rule changes, he should have been more forthright in his criticism of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. “We need to be careful we aren’t boxed in by Abbott,’’ the MP said. ‘’He [Shorten] won’t do it, but people want more than the standard lines from the leader’s office.’’ A second, veteran Labor MP suggested that Mr Howes’ speech was one the Opposition Leader should have delivered himself.

But Howes hurt himself within Labor by proposing a “grand compact” between unions and business - a vague and backward idea with virtually zero support from unions, business, Liberals or Labor:

Bill Shorten believes it’s a fantasy... “Very 1980s all of that,” [Tony Abbott] told 4BC Radio today… The Prime Minister told reporters in Brisbane he doesn’t like the sound of a big “council” being dictated between businesses, unions and government, because that’s “corporatism” not democracy.

Shorten and Howes, once allies within the AWU, are now more distant than ever. ... Ever since Julia Gillard was defeated by Kevin Rudd in their final leadership showdown, Howes’s standing within the party has slipped. The NSW Right split against him in that showdown, with close ally, former state secretary Sam Dastyari, leading the revolution. The pair’s fallout hasn’t been repaired, with Dastyari now a senator.Next Howes was blocked from running for the Senate vacancy created by Bob Carr’s retirement. Conservative union leader Joe de Bruyn blocked Howes on the unofficial grounds that he was pro gay marriage… While Howes was only recently re-elected to his national secretary position within the AWU, rumblings within the union suggest he leads a divided organisation. That is likely only to increase after his press club claim that wages are too high.

Many people forget how young Howes actually is - just 32. They also forget how much intelligent people tend to change their views - particularly on politics - with experience and growing wisdom. As a boy from a broken home, Howes was a Trot. As a bright young union leader, he became more pragmatic and tacked to the Labor Right. As a very successful young man, about to marry a very successful corporate woman, Howes is going ... where? Not to the Labor front bench, I would guess.

FEDERAL MP Clive Palmer has launched an extraordinary attack on China’s biggest conglomerate, declaring he would not stand by and watch Australian interests be “raped and disrespected by foreign-owned companies”. In a dramatic escalation of the tensions between Mr Palmer and the state-controlled Citic Pacific over the newly built $8 billion Sino iron ore project in Western Australia, Mr Palmer accused the Chinese company of trying to take Australian resources without paying full consideration.Citic Pacific president Zhang Jijing yesterday accused Mr Palmer of talking “rubbish” and warned that the dispute had prompted other Chinese companies to place Australia on a watchlist as a potential investment destination. Mr Palmer, the founder of the Palmer United Party that could hold the balance of power in the Senate after July 1, and Citic are engaged in a long-running dispute over the payment of royalties from the Sino project to Mr Palmer’s privately owned Mineralogy, which sold the original tenements to Citic.

Yousif Ibrahim Fasher has been remarkably untroubled by visits from journalists… It was Fasher who alleged a month ago that three asylum seekers had their hands deliberately burned by the Australian navy ...

But since then, as the storm raged on, he was left largely alone. This week, ... Fairfax Media conducted the first extended face-to-face interview with Fasher, who says he was an eyewitness to the incident, and he told his story in unprecedented detail.

On Fasher’s account, ... four asylum seekers [on the boat] forced their way past the two [navy] guards in the main cabin to try to get to the toilet… There was an altercation During the turmoil he says a young man, Bowby Nooris, ... was sprayed in the eyes with capsicum spray, stumbled and blindly grabbed at the hot pipe…But Fasher insists that, after Nooris fell, naval personnel — he does not know their names — grabbed the wrists of three other men and forced their hands onto the hot pipe, one after the other…Afterwards, he says, a man in navy uniform called him over. “They said, ‘Yousif, translate for the people. Say to anyone: If you want to go to the toilet again, we will burn his hands...”

Let’s fact check the claims, because there is less to this story than meets the eye. (I don’t say it’s false; just unlikely.)
First, is it really true that “Yousif Ibrahim Fasher has been remarkably untroubled by visits from journalists” and “Fairfax Media conducted the first extended face-to-face interview with Fasher”?In fact, Peter Alford of The Australian on Monday said he interviewed Yousif Fasher, too, albeit by phone, and reported in broad terms the same claims:

Yousif Fasher ... continues to insist three asylum-seekers on the January 6 boat were “tortured” ... Speaking by phone yesterday from the Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre, in northern Sumatra, Yousif said: “Three people had their hands put on the engine by force, I saw everything.”

But Alford reported what Bachelard has not - reasons to doubt Yousif Fasher’s word.

Of the eight Somali asylum-seekers interviewed at length, only one, Yousif Fasher, continues to insist three asylum-seekers on the January 6 boat were “tortured” in that way.Yousif, who did not receive any burns, was the source of the deliberate burning allegations made to the ABC, often via Sharmarke Abdullah Ahmad… Sharmarke, self-designated spokesman for 62 pushed-back asylum-seekers remaining under immigration supervision in Kupang, now believes none of the burns was deliberately inflicted…Sharmarke says he spoke again to people from the January 6 boat: “They told us they were not deliberately forced to touch the hot engine."…Sharmarke acknowledged yesterday that at least one deliberate burning case cited to him by Yousif, that of Bowby Nooris, was untrue. “Yousif told me that this claiming and everything (else) were accurate, but when I asked Bowby, he just told me another story,” Sharmarke said.

Bowby told The Australian on Thursday that the serious burn on his right hand came about when he was temporarily blinded by what seemed to have been capsicum spray and stumbled against an engine block.

Bachelard in his story today did not note that Yousif Fasher had once falsely claimed Bowby was tortured, too - surely something that goes to his credibility. Bachelard in fact implies Yousif Fasher’s story was always consistent:

Details aside, though, his account has been consistent from the first. During the turmoil he says a young man, Bowby Nooris, the first into the corridor, was sprayed in the eyes with capsicum spray, stumbled and blindly grabbed at the hot pipe. This is consistent with Nooris’s injuries, and what he has subsequently told both the ABC and The Australian about how they were incurred. It’s the basis of the conclusion by Media Watch that: “It appears that the burns occurred in a scuffle with the navy and were not deliberately inflicted by navy personnel”.

I don’t know this Fairfax breakthrough adds anything new. But I do think it does not present the facts in an unbiased way.

What multitudes of prayers we have put up from the first moment when we learned to pray. Our first prayer was a prayer for ourselves; we asked that God would have mercy upon us, and blot out our sin. He heard us. But when he had blotted out our sins like a cloud, then we had more prayers for ourselves. We have had to pray for sanctifying grace, for constraining and restraining grace; we have been led to crave for a fresh assurance of faith, for the comfortable application of the promise, for deliverance in the hour of temptation, for help in the time of duty, and for succour in the day of trial. We have been compelled to go to God for our souls, as constant beggars asking for everything. Bear witness, children of God, you have never been able to get anything for your souls elsewhere. All the bread your soul has eaten has come down from heaven, and all the water of which it has drank has flowed from the living rock--Christ Jesus the Lord. Your soul has never grown rich in itself; it has always been a pensioner upon the daily bounty of God; and hence your prayers have ascended to heaven for a range of spiritual mercies all but infinite. Your wants were innumerable, and therefore the supplies have been infinitely great, and your prayers have been as varied as the mercies have been countless. Then have you not cause to say, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication"? For as your prayers have been many, so also have been God's answers to them. He has heard you in the day of trouble, has strengthened you, and helped you, even when you dishonoured him by trembling and doubting at the mercy-seat. Remember this, and let it fill your heart with gratitude to God, who has thus graciously heard your poor weak prayers. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

As an encouragement cheerfully to offer intercessory prayer, remember that such prayer is the sweetest God ever hears, for the prayer of Christ is of this character. In all the incense which our Great High Priest now puts into the golden censer, there is not a single grain for himself. His intercession must be the most acceptable of all supplications--and the more like our prayer is to Christ's, the sweeter it will be; thus while petitions for ourselves will be accepted, our pleadings for others, having in them more of the fruits of the Spirit, more love, more faith, more brotherly kindness, will be, through the precious merits of Jesus, the sweetest oblation that we can offer to God, the very fat of our sacrifice. Remember, again, that intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvellous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren. When thou hast the King's ear, speak to him for the suffering members of his body. When thou art favoured to draw very near to his throne, and the King saith to thee, "Ask, and I will give thee what thou wilt," let thy petitions be, not for thyself alone, but for the many who need his aid. If thou hast grace at all, and art not an intercessor, that grace must be small as a grain of mustard seed. Thou hast just enough grace to float thy soul clear from the quicksand, but thou hast no deep floods of grace, or else thou wouldst carry in thy joyous bark a weighty cargo of the wants of others, and thou wouldst bring back from thy Lord, for them, rich blessings which but for thee they might not have obtained:--

Today's reading: Exodus 39-40, Matthew 23:23-39 (NIV)

The Priestly Garments

1 From the blue, purple and scarlet yarn they made woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary. They also made sacred garments for Aaron, as the LORD commanded Moses.

The Ephod

2 They made the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. 3 They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strands to be worked into the blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen--the work of skilled hands....

23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean....

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..